Silver Linings Playbook

Bradley Cooper shows some talent and Jennifer Lawrence is someone to look out for

Way overrated IMHO

The chemistry somewhat doesn’t touch me as it should

Some of the corkiness is more annoying than sad

2013-01-11

3.1Overall Score

After the initial plan of watching the Silver Linings Playbook fell through, I took another chance and got to see the next picture on “Erwin’s Road to the Academy Awards”….and I struggle to provide a good and thorough review about this movie.

I feel that all elements for a good dramedy (with much more drama than comedy) were put in place. Bradley Cooper was actually capable of convincing me that he can do more than just stealing tigers or loving it when a plan comes together. Also Jennifer Lawrence – who I hadn’t actually observed before – played her part really well, she had the outburst, the passion and the love of a broken woman who wants to believe again. The chemistry between the two main characters slowly builds up and is at first somewhat awkward but gets better as the movie moves along.

Robert De Niro – who inarguably is one of the most incredible actors of the last 35 years – finally is co-starring in meaningful movie again after almost 10 years of flops (in my books the last good movie with him was Meet the Parents in 2000). And that really makes me happy. I should probably also mention that Chris Tucker plays his first somewhat serious role I have seen and Julia Stiles plays for the first time a grown up person who doesn’t dance. All in all the entire cast is very likable and shows good acting skills. Throughout the movie, you feel with the characters and the pain they are suffering. How they just can’t get their lives under control which affects not only them but also their direct surroundings.
So if you make a sum of all these elements (good main and supporting cast + well scripted drama + high emotional impact), you typically can create an amazing movie. And this movie is for sure a good and solid picture but there was something about it which just didn’t really get me…and I’m still trying to point my finger at it. There is something about Bradley Cooper which I don’t really enjoy – he is not that kind of actor who really gets to me. In addition, the awkwardness of the dialogues which were more supposed to make me feel bad for the people didn’t really touch me the way they were intended. The way how Pat jr. is sticking to his marriage and putting false hope into it is weird and did not have the effect of “Oh poor guy, he has really lost everything and now he is about to loose his mind” but more something on the lines “Oh come on…seriously???”. To quote my girlfriend this movie is probably more geared towards a visceral audience.

At the end my expectation – after hearing about a 91% rating on RottenTomatoes – were probably set way too high and if I would have watched this movie completely unbiased, I would thought more highly of it. But in my mind, this was not the masterpiece it was made out to be, the acting was solid, the chemistry between the main cast was good (but we’ve seen a lot better – my favorite of all times remains “True Romance“) and it made for a good dramedy. While for me the best part of it for me personally is to see that Robert De Niro has had a great comeback…Could-see but no must-see.